Brain Benefits of Reading
By Makena Wood, BSc Neuroscience,
As we all know, and as you presently take in this blog, reading is an essential skill for everyday life. It is crucial that children gain literacy skills and develop the “reading parts” of their brains at a young age so that they can be well-equipped to navigate their education, their relationships, their passions, and their future adult lives. Aside from its benefits for brain development, as this blog will explore, reading (especially fiction) is an excellent workout for brains of all ages (Carter, 2018). Most importantly, reading is not genetic; a baby’s brain is hardwired to learn a language, but unless reading is taught and encouraged, it cannot be learned (Carter, 2018).
Inside your brain (right now!)
Studies investigating the circuits underlying reading in the brain show differences in activation in adult brains compared to children’s’ brains when it comes to reading narrative stories (Zhou et al., 2021). In children, the brain is most active in regions related to phonological processing (areas that combine letters on the page to make sounds, and put sounds together to make words), whereas in adults these regions are less active and have had their activity taken over by visual and semantic systems in the brain (Zhou et al., 2021). Additionally, activity in vision-related brain circuits in adults is correlated with better reading performance (Zhou et al., 2021). Put simply, as you age and hone your reading skills, your brain relies less on sounding words out as you go, and instead can read automatically and create meaning from the words you are reading (Zhou et al., 2021). Lastly (and most closely related to our mission at Building Brains Together), deep-level sematic processing (using emotion and context from other experiences to create meaning from text) is likely reflective of improvements in executive function with age, rather than improvements in reading ability (Zhou et al., 2021). So, the more you practice finding meaning in what you read, the better chance you have at building your executive function.
Reading is a family affair
A term often used in literature discussing reading and child development is ‘shared reading’, which describes the activity taken on by parents when they read out loud to their children. Shared reading in early life and throughout childhood is widely known to promote language and cognitive development (Council on Early Childhood, as cited in Wang et al., 2022). Other interesting findings about shared reading that are important to consider when discussing its role in brain development include:
- Maternal reading fluency can predict the quality of future connectivity in regions of their child’s brain related to reading, language, and executive function (Horowitz-Kraus et al., 2018).
o While this study did not specifically look at fathers, it suggests that parents should consider how their child’s external reading environment may affect their development, and that their own reading fluency contributes to this environment. So, when teaching your child to read, it may be beneficial for parents to pick up a new and challenging read for themselves as well.
- Shared reading is important for the development of social abilities in children, and children are both more attentive and show more positive facial expressions when their mother reads them a story as compared to when a stranger reads them a story (Hasegawa et al., 2021).
o This study also did not look specifically at fathers but highlights the importance of a general ‘familiarity effect’ when a child engages in shared reading. While shared reading may be happening in school or other settings, it is important for a child to be engaged in shared reading at home as well.
Reading for life
It’s great to know that reading is important for our young population, but what does it do for the rest of us?
- Healthy aging: A study by Levasseur et al. (2024) from l’Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec shares findings that suggest both shared reading and writing activities may have a positive effect on the overall well-being of older adults. They suggest that these types of activities should be considered more often when planning health interventions designed to help older adults maintain and nurture their self-esteem, sense of purpose, intellectual capabilities, interpersonal relationships, and social environments.
- Empathy: In her TED talk titled ‘Why reading matters’, Rita Carter explores the positive impacts of reading for all ages but closes her talk with a powerful statement about the importance of reading for society as a whole: “The brain is like a muscle: the more you force yourself to take other people’s perspectives (…) the more empathetic society we will have.” (Carter, 2018).
- Self-care: Personally, I enjoy reading as a form of self-care. Not only is reading fiction a great workout for your brain (as mentioned in the introduction to this blog), but it provides another world to escape into at the end of a long day. Reading a book I’m thoroughly invested in gives me a way to put personal stressors out of mind for a short time while I read and invest energy towards connecting with the characters and the world I’m discovering on the pages in front of me.
Local reading resources
If the rest of this blog hasn’t convinced you that you should go find a new novel and dive in, or pick out an eye-catching picture book to share with a little one in your life, then let these local reading resources be your sign to start!
* Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy: https://cbal.org/what-happens-in-our-brains-when-we-read/ (based out of Trail, British Columbia).
* Lethbridge Public Libraries
o Main Branch: 810 5 Ave S
o Crossings Branch: 255 Britannia Blvd W
o The BookStop at Lethbridge Labor Club Ice Center (2020 18 Ave N) (See https://www.lethlib.ca/about-us/hours-and-locations for details).
o Bookmobile (see https://www.lethlib.ca/about-us/hours-and-locations for details).
* A map of Little Free Libraries in Lethbridge (Little Library Lethbridge)
* Rita Carter’s TED Talk, ‘Why reading matters’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muuWRKYi09s
References
Carter, R. (2018, February). Why reading matters [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_carter_why_reading_matters?language=en
Hasegawa, C., Takahashi, T., Ikeda, T., Yoshimura, Y., Hiraishi, H., Nobuwaka, S., Saito, D. N., Kumazaki, H., Yaoi, K., Hirata, M., Asada, M., & Kikuchi, M. (2021). Effects of familiarity on child brain networks when listening to storybook reading: A magneto-encephalographic study. NeuroImage, 241, 1-10.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118389
Horowitz-Kraus, T., Hutton, J. S., Phelan, K., & Holland, S. K. (2018). Maternal reading fluency is positively associated with greater functional connectivity between the child’s future reading network and regions related to executive functions and language processing in preschool-age children. Brain and Cognition, 17, 17-23.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2018.01.003
Levasseur, M., Dezutter, O., Trang Nguygen, T. H., Babin, J., Bier, N., & Biron, M. L. (2024). Influence of reading or writing activities shared with others on older adults: Results from a scoping study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 44, 298-311.
https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648241274532
Wang, S., Tzeng, O. J. L., & Aslin, R. N. (2022). Predictive brain signals mediate association between shared reading and expressive vocabulary in infants. PLoS ONE, 17, 1-16.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272438
Zhou, W., Cui, X., Shi, B., Su, M., & Cao, M. (2021). The development of brain functional connectome during text reading. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 48, 1-9.